Urinary incontinence onset predictors in community-dwelling older women: A prospective cohort study

We aimed to investigate whether physical function was associated with urinary incontinence (UI) onset in community-dwelling older Japanese women.

This was a 4-year prospective cohort study. After excluding participants with UI and missing data in the baseline survey, we included 890 participants in the analyses. Physical function including grip strength, maximal walking speed, knee extension strength, single-leg balance, and timed up and go (TUG) were measured. The primary outcome was the onset of all UI and different types of UI (urge, stress and mixed) based on the questionnaire survey. Binary logistic regression analysis was applied to calculate the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between physical function and the risk of all UI and different types of UI incident.

Among the 890 participants, 221 (25%) developed UI during the 4-year follow-up. After adjusting for confounders, better knee extension strength, maximal walking speed and TUG were significantly associated with a lower risk of all UI and urge UI onset, and better single-leg balance and TUG were significantly associated with a lower risk of mixed UI onset (P for trend <0.05). No significant association was found between physical function and the risk of stress UI onset.

This study confirmed that better lower extremity physical function is associated with lower risk of urge and mixed UI onset, indicating that exercise programs focusing on maintaining and improving lower extremity physical function may be useful for reducing such events among older women. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 178-184.